Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Why can you be alive in fact and legally dead?

Miller's wife, Robin, successfully opposed his request for a change in death ruling. She says she cannot afford to repay the $26,000 in death benefits she has already received.

Apparently, Miller had been declared "legally dead" in 1994 after skipping town so that his wife could receive Social Security benefits. The limit on changing a "legally dead" declaration is three years, and Miller is out of luck.

Now Miller cannot obtain a driver's license or reinstate his cancelled Social Security number. He may need to file in federal court to challenge his legally dead ruling.

Judge Allan Davis purportedly told Miller, "We've got the obvious here. A man sitting in the courtroom, he appears to be in good health. . . I don't know where that leaves you, but you're still deceased as far as the law is concerned."

This blog is

Point of departure:

Mariana Valverde noted the "failure to analyze, and even to see, the legal dimensions of routine life" and "the areas of law that work without fanfare and without police" in Everyday Law on the Street: City Governance in an Age of Diversity. University of Chicago Press, 2012, 7-8.